Several educational agencies came together along with the TMC Group, a Seattle-based consultancy, to form the E-MAN consortium that would define requirements, develop a network configuration, and issue a request for proposal (RFP) to vendors providing the network infrastructure.

On the networking side, leading industry vendors submitted solutions ranging from ATM to SONET to Gigabit Ethernet for the backbone of the E-MAN network.

In the case of E-MAN, if ATM is implemented in a ring configuration, the network then requires an ATM switch at each site, substantially adding to capital equipment costs--something the E-MAN consortium was trying to avoid.

The bond initiative resulted in an E-MAN (educational metropolitan area network): a new Gigabit Ethernet IP-based network designed to link all Spokane elementary and secondary schools (K-12) with local and state colleges and universities over fiber.

The SD81 E-MAN currently connects 53 sites, at distances of up to 20 km (12.

Supplying the wire-speed routing and packet switching necessary for high bandwidth applications of today and tomorrow, the E-MAN provides the school district with the scalable backbone necessary for high-speed Internet access, local area network (LAN) interconnect services, and future voice-over-IP, video-on-demand, and distance learning applications.

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